Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 10:04 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan is wasting no time in taking advantage of his situation at Penske-Jasper Racing.
Gaughan, driving the No. 77 Kodak Dodge, posted the fifth-fastest speed Wednesday during the second of three days of NASCAR Nextel Cup testing at Daytona International Speedway. Gaughan's speed of 185.155 mph also is the sixth-fastest among the 17 Nextel Cup drivers through two days of testing.
For the second consecutive day, defending Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip led all drivers with a speed of 186.590 mph. Dale Jarrett (186.058), Joe Nemechek (185.510) and Jeremy Mayfield (185.303) and Gaughan rounded out the top five. Las Vegas native Kurt Busch was 12th-fastest Wednesday at 184.207.
"I always like to be first but when Michael Waltrip is that much faster than everybody else, I'll take fifth," Gaughan said.
Gaughan, who will compete for Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors this season, said he was not surprised that he was near the top of the speed chart in his first test with the Penske-Jasper team.
"The thing is, when you're driving for an organization like Penske-Jasper, they're going to give you the resources," Gaughan said. "I've had (driving coach) Buddy Baker grilling me all day on the radio. With all the information and all the stuff that Penske is providing ... we have a good racecar."
Baker, the 1980 Daytona 500 winner, was recruited by Penske-Jasper Racing to mentor Gaughan. Baker also worked with Penske Racing driver Ryan Newman, who went on to win Rookie of the Year in 2002 and a series-leading eight races in 2003.
"Buddy worked with Ryan Newman and when (team general manager) John Erickson and the guys from Penske offered to have a guy like him come down here and help me, I jumped at the chance," Gaughan said. "It has been great. He's a give-it-to-you-straight guy.
"This afternoon, I went out there two different times and I wasn't really focusing -- and I know I wasn't -- and I didn't think I was that far off. Buddy came down at lunch and sat down with me and said, 'what happened those two times?' I said, 'what do you mean?' and he looked at me and said, 'I know what happened; you were trying to be lazy.' He's right on."
Gaughan will test Jan. 28-29 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Kurt Busch of Las Vegas is listed at 10-1 to win both the Daytona 500 and the championship while Gaughan is 50-1 to win the 500 and is among the field (25-1) to win the championship.
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